WWE PG Era=WWE Golden Era?

I started watching Wrestling around 1997 and instantly fell in love with it. I was only 8 at the time but understood a lot about the business that a lot of kids my age or even kids older then me did. I was lucky enough to witness every Monday and 2 sundays a month the best era in Pro Wrestling to date. For the past few years however I've fallen off as a fan, mostly because my idol retired, but mainly because the state of the WWE right now quite frankly sucks. I have however been watching a lot more lately and have kind of forced myself back into it(I watch more old youtube clips then todays shows). I got to thinking, seeing the storylines, the gimmicks, the shows, the wrestling in the ring, just the overall product of the WWE, I cant help but strongly compare it to the ERA before that of 1997, "The Golden Era''. Does anybody else see any similarities or is it just me?

This is similar to the golden era, but whilst there are some characters; that's nothing on the scale of characters we used to get. WWF always aimed its self towards families! The attitude era was circumstantial, so without WCW, WWE would have probably remained PG.

I just get this feeling when I watch an episode of RAW, that im watching something from 20 years ago. I don't believe that this era will follow with an era similar to that of the attitude era but I can always hope and pray. But what if TNA makes some drastic changes and starts to beat WWE in the ratings?? I was looking at some PPV buyrates for SummerSlam the other day and it kind of shocked me when I read that the 2012 event had 62,000 less buyrates then that of 2011, and in 5 years, went from 537,000 to 296,000. That's a huge dropoff, so what does that hold in store for the Summer event in 2017? What if business gets so bad or the competition gets so strong that Vince, or Shane or HHH(who is probably just waiting for the day that the Company "goes there" again) has no choice but too Rev things up and start a more edgier product again? I can honestly see that happening.

Everybody Knows Why The U.S. Keeps From Fallin In The Ocean... Because Canada SUCKS!!"-G.O.A.T."

For me the big difference is the lack of cartoony characters, larger than life types who you know to love or hate the second they step out from the curtain. Also, I think the acknowledgement of kayfabe as a thing and repeatedly breaking it (on WWE programs or elsewhere) dulls the magic a little. Stephanie called HHH "Paul" on Raw last Monday and The Rock is widely known as Dwayne Johnson and running around making movies, hell even Sami Zyan acknowledged having wrestled Cesaro before when these two are meant to have met for the first time a week ago. It's fun for us smarks to spot these things and know what they're talking about but it would never happen in any other show where people depict characters.

I see the similarities but for me the Golden Age will always be pinnacle of what I want from WWE (probably because it's where I started).